Rare Sumatran Rhino From US Zoo Moves to Asia to Save His Species

A rhino from the Cincinnati Zoo is officially on a mission to Southeast Asia to save his entire species.

Harapan, an 1,800 pound Sumatran Rhino, will leave sometime this fall for a sanctuary in Indonesia dedicated to saving the Sumatrans, a species declared extinct in Malaysia just this month. Currently, only 100 Sumatran Rhinos remain in the world.

“We believe there is still time to save them and we are by no means giving up that fight now,” Dr. Terri Roth, Director of the Zoo’s Center for Conservation & Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) said at a press conference.

The Cincinnati Zoo has had a Sumatran Rhino breeding program for 25 years, the only place in the world that has successfully bred the endangered species since 1889.

Harapan (pictured above, right) is the only Sumatran Rhino on public view anywhere in the world outside Southeast Asia.

Harapan was the third rhino born at the zoo and with his departure the breeding program will come to an end in Cincinnati, but zookeepers say their research and the rhino will aid the breeding effort in Indonesia.